Epicurean Curiosity

I have decided that the art of "dining well" does not always have to mean "dining inside a nice restaurant with candlelit tables, linen napkins, and a wine list to impress a sommelier." While I have been fortunate to patron several of Nashville's finer-dining establishments, I know there are countless cookeries I am missing out on by overlooking some of the city's best greasy spoons and holes-in-the-wall.

While I have sampled Arnold Myint's creations, sliced a filet from the kitchen of Loews Vanderbilt Hotel, and sipped the Jackson's Pale Ale made by Yazoo specially for the Hillsboro Village eatery, I have not visited the legendary Prince's Hot Chicken Shack, Arnold's Country Kitchen on 8th Ave., or about 1 trillion other restaurants that combine to make up the lyrics of Music City's food scene.

Inspired by a recent Southern Living article by Alabamian Rick Bragg (whom I admire and want to emulate) wherein he pays tribute to the culinary treats at small local dives across the South, I hope to explore more of Nashville's local flavor. Those places I often pass by and rarely give second thought to. Those joints where heads will turn to see a cute young white girl from Hillsboro Village walk through the doors.

This city thrives off of great music and great food. It's high time I get out there, off the beaten path, out of the Scene's restaurant reviews, and through the doors of the places offering up plain ole' good Southern food.

Now, who's hungry?